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14 YouTube Videos Every Game Of Thrones Fan Should Have Watched By Now

Ali Plumb

15 Apr 2014 09:00Last updated: 9 Oct 2015 07:46

Game Of Thrones is a TV sensation, taking over the internet every time a new series arrives. With three seasons in the bag and another just two weeks into its run, it’s time to enjoy a deep dive into YouTube and see what videos are worthy of a throne in Wild, Wild Westeros. So, following in Breaking Bad’s footsteps, here are our favourite Throne tributes and mash-ups in one handy list. Needless to say, if you’re not up to date with the TV show, you may want to click away now.

Game Of Thrones is famous for two things: boobs and murder. We’re not the sort of website that would bring you a supercut of boobs (sorry) but here’s a collection of every on-screen death in the first three seasons and episode one of season four. While even the makers couldn’t fix the exact number, their estimate puts it north of 5,000. Gosh.

King’s Landing isn’t real, Winterfell isn’t real, even The Eyrie isn’t real. As well as being – whisper it – fictional, the locations are made of CGI smoke and mirrors. What set there is typically serves as a base upon which the VFX priests and priestesses build their work on later, with green screen used most days, especially for wide shots of outdoor locations. So with that in mind, enjoy your dreams being turned to ash as digital wizardry house Pixomondo pulls back the red curtain.

Because so many of Game Of Thrones’ names, places and abstract concepts are made up by George R.R. Martin, the show’s unusual verbiage makes for an excellent Bad Lip Reading video. Sure, some gags are just genius on their own merits – resist the urge to say “Face lick!” next time you kiss someone on the cheek – but “Kind sir, I am the evil studmuffin” could only exist because of the medi-evil villainy GRRM has brought to this world. For a bonus Bad Lip Reading scene featuring the fabled “imp slap”, click this way.

As anyone who’s seen his lengthy Breaking Bad skit can tell you, when Jimmy Fallon likes a TV series, he isn’t afraid to let it show. Here, he imagines the Late Night offices as a medieval kill-or-be-killed Machiavellian mosh pit where he strolls around like Ned Stark while his perennial assistant, Steve Higgins, plays a Varys-alike eunuch with a pair of testicles hanging around his neck in a small bag. Remember while you watch this that it was made as a digital only short. Good luck matching those production values, Grumpy Cat…

Add some cheesy music, play with some VHS-imitating distortion effects, pause at appropriate moments and overlay the characters’ names on the screen… making a “If [Insert Name Of TV Show] Was Made In 1995” video isn’t the hardest thing in the world, but it is funny. For a similar gag, check out Game Of Thrones – The Seinfeld Chronicles.

The gag: the Game Of Thrones theme music, sung using the word “Hodor” and the word “Hodor” alone. The gag on top of the gag: “If this video hits 1 million hits, I will post the lyrics.” If you can think of a better YouTube intro gag, please do let us know. See also, The Game Of Thrones Theme (Fuckin’ Edition), where the theme is sung using the words “Fuckin’ Game Of Thrones”, and this Peter Dinklage version, where the lyrics consist of the words "Peter" and "Dinklage".

The show’s appallingly catchy opener has sparked quite a few covers versions on all sorts of instruments and in myriad styles. Those ubiquitous Harp Twins aside, this is arguably the best string version of Iranian-German composer Ramin Djawadi’s much-loved theme, but there are some other versions worth checking out. Wonderful in a different way, this smooth jazz take doesn’t count, as it’s lead by a saxophonist and is, quite frankly, distractingly sexy. Less distractingly sexy is the voice and violin cover, where the vocals are somehow really scary. Full marks for effort though.

On Twitter, you either hashtag your Game Of Thrones tweet #GameOfThrones or, if you’re into the whole brevity thing, #GoT, or you don’t hashtag it at all, because you've sworn off them since #Hashtag. But #GoT is just one letter away from #GoaT, which undoubtedly inspired the #Goats that are “singing” in this utterly bonkers mash-up. We’re not sure they’ve thought it through though: there’s at least one sheep in there.

Fan reactions are one thing, but this goes one step further. It’s with impish glee that George R.R. Martin watches videos of TV-show-only Game Of Thrones fans freak out at The Red Wedding. Well of course he's gleeful: he clearly takes sadistic delight in bringing misery to others. Just look at his characters! It’s with understanding and perverse pleasure that we do the same.

God bless Screen Junkies and all who work for her. When they’re not compiling excellent supercuts, they’re picking apart pop culture in a loving yet damning fashion. Here, they successfully deal with any spoiler avoiders by calling them out for being wimps. Brave words, Screen Junkies, brave words.

How It Should Have Ended videos normally feature Batman and Superman at a diner, arguing like children. Here, they forgo all that caped carry on and stick to answering the question “How should Season One of Game Of Thrones have ended?” When you think about it, it really should have gone this way (and George R.R. Martin would probably approved to boot).

It’s hard to explain a video as strange as this one. So before you click play – if you dare – know that it contains “The Starks” singing/rapping the words “We are the north siders” and a woman who looks almost nothing like Daenerys Targaryen saying “I’ve got dragons, bitch.” A curio to go alongside the Gotye mickey take ‘A Character That I Used To Know’ and ‘School Of Thrones – Episode 1: Prom Night Is Coming’.

There are a lot of skits, theme tune interpretations and, um, goats on this list, but it’s not all silliness. This 30-minute question and answer session with Jack Gleeson, who brilliantly plays the utterly awful Joffrey, provides a bit more substance. Revel in the behind-the-scenes details! Bathe in Gleeson’s luxuriant Irish accent! Bemoan the sound quality! This really does have it all.